PHUKET: French, Australians, an American a Canadian and other foreigners are among the dead in the Laos aircraft crash.

Laos officials said the plane carrying 39 passengers and five crew went down about eight kilometres from the airport in Champassak province, according to Thai foreign ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee.

''I can now confirm, according to our reports, that all 44 people on board have died, including five Thais,'' he said.

In a statement on its Facebook page, Laos Airlines confirmed the toll. It said the flight encountered bad weather and crashed into the Mekong.

A list of the 44 passengers was released by the airline at about 9pm. It described the passengers as five from Thailand, five from Australia, three from Korea, seven from France, one from the US, one from China, one from Taiwan, one from Canada and two from Vietnam.

The deaths among Thais included two PTT petroleum company staff, according to early unofficial accounts.

The Laos Airlines ART twin-turbo plane flight QV301 crashed into the river as it was coming in to land at Pakse airport in southern Laos.

The plane left Wattay airport in Vientiane at 14.45pm and crashed at 15.55pm, one official said.

A photograph being widely circulated as of the crashed aircraft in Laos actually appears to be from the crash in July of a flight in Russia, according to the report on the usually reliable Aviation Herald site: